WEDNESDAY
JAN 16, 2019

Mdou Moctar

Visitors | + DJ SAUDE

Mdou Moctar

In the crowded scene of Tuareg guitarists, Mdou Moctar stands apart from his peers. Playing in the repertoire of desert guitar popularized by groups like Tinariwen and Bombino, Mdou is pushing the boundaries of the genre with a unique personal sound. With versatile compositions and genre defying albums, Mdou's music has been an underground success with an international following, set on redefining the sound of the desert.

Mdou Moctar hails from a small village in the Azawagh desert of Niger, a remote region steeped in religious tradition. As a child, he taught himself to play the a homemade guitars, cobbled together out of planks of wood. It was years later before he found a “real” guitar, teaching himself in secret. In an area where guitar music was all but prohibited, he quickly rose to the status of local celebrity amongst the village youth.

In 2008 he traveled to Nigeria to record his first album “Anar.” A psychedelic reworking of the Tuareg sound, the electronic tracks featured innovative pitch bending synths, drum machines, and autotune. In 2010, he teamed up with the label and collective Sahel Sounds, releasing his first international album, “Afelan.” In 2015, he co-wrote and starred in the first ever Tuareg language film, “Rain the Color Blue with a Little Red In It,” a Saharan remake of Prince's “Purple Rain.” In 2017, he again shifted gears to another sound with “Sousoume Tamachek,” a mellow blissed out recording evoking the calm desert soundscape, tackling religion, spirituality, and matters of the heart. In the past years, Tuareg rock music has gotten faster. There is a preference for this new style, both in the raucous weddings of Agadez and in Berlin rock clubs. The wavering guitar solos, rapid fire drums and heavy distortion has become characteristic of the contemporary sound. Mdou takes on this challenge, but with an ear towards tradition. Rooted in traditional, with borrowed polyrhythms of traditional « takamba » and lyrics sung in the style of old nomadic poets, his guitar playing is wild and unrelenting, equal parts nomadic bard and Eddie Van Halen. Mdou Moctar and his band have toured Europe and North America, playing sold out shows from small DIY rock clubs in Portland to New York City's Lincoln Center. His music has been featured in the BBC, The Guardian, Pitchfork, New Yorker, L.A. Weekly, NPR, Rolling Stone, Les Inrocks, and his film continues to be screened at film festivals around the world. From underground star of Niger to international film star, Mdou Moctar has undoubtedly one of the quickest rises to success.

In the crowded scene of Tuareg guitarists, Mdou Moctar stands apart from his peers. Playing in the repertoire of desert guitar popularized by groups like Tinariwen and Bombino, Mdou is pushing the boundaries of the genre with a unique personal sound. With versatile compositions and genre defying albums, Mdou's music has been an underground success with an international following, set on redefining the sound of the desert.

Mdou Moctar hails from a small village in the Azawagh desert of Niger, a remote region steeped in religious tradition. As a child, he taught himself to play the a homemade guitars, cobbled together out of planks of wood. It was years later before he found a “real” guitar, teaching himself in secret. In an area where guitar music was all but prohibited, he quickly rose to the status of local celebrity amongst the village youth.

In 2008 he traveled to Nigeria to record his first album “Anar.” A psychedelic reworking of the Tuareg sound, the electronic tracks featured innovative pitch bending synths, drum machines, and autotune. In 2010, he teamed up with the label and collective Sahel Sounds, releasing his first international album, “Afelan.” In 2015, he co-wrote and starred in the first ever Tuareg language film, “Rain the Color Blue with a Little Red In It,” a Saharan remake of Prince's “Purple Rain.” In 2017, he again shifted gears to another sound with “Sousoume Tamachek,” a mellow blissed out recording evoking the calm desert soundscape, tackling religion, spirituality, and matters of the heart. In the past years, Tuareg rock music has gotten faster. There is a preference for this new style, both in the raucous weddings of Agadez and in Berlin rock clubs. The wavering guitar solos, rapid fire drums and heavy distortion has become characteristic of the contemporary sound. Mdou takes on this challenge, but with an ear towards tradition. Rooted in traditional, with borrowed polyrhythms of traditional « takamba » and lyrics sung in the style of old nomadic poets, his guitar playing is wild and unrelenting, equal parts nomadic bard and Eddie Van Halen. Mdou Moctar and his band have toured Europe and North America, playing sold out shows from small DIY rock clubs in Portland to New York City's Lincoln Center. His music has been featured in the BBC, The Guardian, Pitchfork, New Yorker, L.A. Weekly, NPR, Rolling Stone, Les Inrocks, and his film continues to be screened at film festivals around the world. From underground star of Niger to international film star, Mdou Moctar has undoubtedly one of the quickest rises to success.

Visitors

Visitors is collaborative musical hive mind born out of the Broad Street Visitors Center recording studio run by Dan Bailey and Jared Pepper. Dan and Jared began construction on the space back in the Fall of 2014. Two years later, from the guts of an abandoned liquor store, Dan and Jared had built not only a fully functioning studio but a beautiful creative space. Along with the Mammal Gallery, they were part of the first wave of artists to begin the transformation of south Downtown Atlanta. Now they were poised to form a unique musical dialect.

Inviting the best and brightest of the local jazz and experimental music scenes, Visitors was born. Weekly improv sessions would set the groundwork for what would become expansive compositions in the Visitors repertoire. Even though their albums feature dozens of players from the local music community. The performing lineup had been distilled to include the key players in Visitors heightened lexicon. Dan Bailey plays his signature fretless electric bass. Jared Pepper on drums and Kenneth Kenito Murray on percussion make up a formidable rhythm section. Gage Gilmore on keyboards with electronic wizard Jeremi Johnson on synthesizer command the "space station". While flutist Rasheeda Ali brings a deft melodic tone to the ensemble.

You can expect to hear a lot from Visitors in 2018. They are currently shopping for label support of the studio albums and future touring ventures.

Visitors is collaborative musical hive mind born out of the Broad Street Visitors Center recording studio run by Dan Bailey and Jared Pepper. Dan and Jared began construction on the space back in the Fall of 2014. Two years later, from the guts of an abandoned liquor store, Dan and Jared had built not only a fully functioning studio but a beautiful creative space. Along with the Mammal Gallery, they were part of the first wave of artists to begin the transformation of south Downtown Atlanta. Now they were poised to form a unique musical dialect.

Inviting the best and brightest of the local jazz and experimental music scenes, Visitors was born. Weekly improv sessions would set the groundwork for what would become expansive compositions in the Visitors repertoire. Even though their albums feature dozens of players from the local music community. The performing lineup had been distilled to include the key players in Visitors heightened lexicon. Dan Bailey plays his signature fretless electric bass. Jared Pepper on drums and Kenneth Kenito Murray on percussion make up a formidable rhythm section. Gage Gilmore on keyboards with electronic wizard Jeremi Johnson on synthesizer command the "space station". While flutist Rasheeda Ali brings a deft melodic tone to the ensemble.

You can expect to hear a lot from Visitors in 2018. They are currently shopping for label support of the studio albums and future touring ventures.